Increased China corn production boosts 2012/13 global output

World coarse grain supplies for 2012/13 were projected higher in December, mostly due to a large record corn crop reported for China. USDA projects China’s corn crop at 208.0 million tons, up 8.0 million tons from the previous forecast. With this revision, China’s 2012/13 corn crop is projected to exceed the previous year’s record by 8 percent. The record crop, also forecast by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), is supported by economic information, weather data, and satellite imagery. NBS reported a record 34.95 million hectares of corn harvested in 2012/13, a 4-percent increase from the previous year. Price conditions at planting favored corn over alternative crops, especially soybeans or cotton, and favorable growing conditions limited crop losses. Corn area expansion has been strongest in the two northernmost provinces, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, and temperature and rainfall conditions were favorable in these regions. This chart appears in ERS’s Feed Outlook: December 2012, FDS-12l.

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